"The repeated violations of our airspace are unacceptable. The message is clear: Russia is testing the European Union and NATO."

"And our response must be firm, united and immediate."

"At today's meeting, we agreed to move from concept  to concrete actions."

"[Ministers backed a broad plan to bolster the EU's eastern defences; the] immediate priority [should be a] drone wall, with advanced detection, tracking, and interception capabilities."

EU defence commissioner Andrius Kubilius 

 

"[Ukraine is] ready to participate [in the project]."

"The drone wall will create a fundamentally new defence ecosystem in Europe, of which Ukraine is ready to be a part."

Ukraine's defence minister Denys Shmyhal  

A mobile radar installation is seen at the Danish military site on Amager, Pionegaarden, near the village of Dragoer and on the coast of Oresund, the sea between Denmark and Sweden, on Friday, Sept. 26, 2025. (Steven Knap/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)

The urgent need to create a "wall" of anti-drone defences following airspace violations by Russia, was unanimously agreed to by European Union countries on Friday. The threat that was made glaringly obvious this past week when  unidentified drones gave Denmark and Norway little option but to close down some of their airports gave sharp focus to the extent and breadth of the threat facing EU and NATO-member nations.

 

Online discussions were held by the EU defence commissioner with ministers from ten EU states located mostly along the bloc's eastern border. Ukraine, though not a member of the EU, was invited to take part in the discussions, given its proven capabilities to detect and disarm the missiles in their airspace by shooting down Russian drone swarms. 

 

The meeting participants agreed that focus would initially be on the development of a network of sensors to assist in better detection of such threatening incursions', feasibly on line within a year. Building full interception capabilities would take longer in the goal of intercepting the drones. Ursula von der Leyen, EU chief, in a keynote speech this month produced the first call for a "drone wall", mere hours following a NATO shoot-down of Russian drones in Poland. 

 

An engineer watches a Ukrainian-made quadcopter drone at an undisclosed location in Ukraine, June 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky) 

NATO's initial response had little option given its unpreparedness, other than to use top-of-the-range fighter jets to fire expensive missiles with an aim of shooting down a handful of cheap Russian drones, emphasizing gaps in the alliance's arsenal for addressing such airborne threats. Since then, the alliance conveyed additional hardware to its eastern flank, yet the sort of low-cost capabilities of fending off Russian attack drones lack Ukraine's experience.

 

The proposal for the "drone wall" represents a portion of the broader impetus by Europe to  support an addition to its defences in recognition of the threats emanating from Russia. The program thus considered should be regarded as a new flagship defence project being worked on by the bloc in its response to Moscow's growing belligerence. 

 

Ukrainian soldiers prepare to launch an Avenger UAV drone in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2025. ( AP Photo/Yevhen Titov)